Biography

Owen was a lawyer who retained his connexions with Shrewsbury, his counsel often being sought by the bailiffs on such matters as the holding of a weekly court, and the payment of a public preacher. In 1589 he told the burgesses that they were not obliged to return a resident to Parliament, and in 1591 he was consulted about the ‘Shearmen’s Tree’, a maypole whose appearance had enraged the puritans in the town. His own views on the matter were liberal: he ruled that the tree ‘should be used as heretofore, so it be done civilly and in loving order, without contention’. The borough made him occasional presents, and at his request, returned his eldest son to Parliament in 1597. At his own election in 1584 he received 366 votes, as against the 299 and 176 polled by his opponents. Presumably he did not wish to sit again—it is inconceivable that, as recorder, he could not have obtained a seat if he had wished for one.1

Although Owen bought Condover, near Shrewsbury, in 1586, and built a fine red sandstone house there, he does not seem to have lived in it himself, nor did he spend much time in attendance on the council in the marches of Wales. No doubt this can be explained by the frequent demands made by the Privy Council on his services. From 1577 onwards he received numerous charges: he was instructed to examine the petition of a seaman’s wife, the causes of a riot in London, and several traitors, under torture. He examined charges of corruption, coining and rape. It was his task in 1591 to deport a ‘lewd and unreverent’ Walloon, and in December 1588 he was one of 16 lawyers instructed to consider repealing or reforming certain statutes for the coming Parliament.2

In the Parliament of 1584 he sat on committees concerning common informers (9 Dec.), the preservation of grain (19 Dec.), ecclesiastical livings (19 Dec.), the maintenance of the navy (19 Dec.), fraudulent conveyances (18 Feb. 1585), delays of executions (5 Mar.), assurances (22 Mar.) and the good government of the city of Westminster (22 Mar.). After he became Queen’s serjeant he was often employed to carry bills and messages between the Commons and the Lords. As a judge, he was attached to various committees of the Lords in 1597 and 1598.3

As well as Condover, he owned or leased considerable property in Essex and Montgomery. He must have stood high i